Tag Archives: Cantrell & Cochrane

Cantrell & Cochrane was the largest manufacturer of soft drinks in the world.

Thomas Joseph Cantrell (1827 – 1909) was born in Dublin. He qualified as a medical practitioner and became a principal assistant at Grattan & Co, a Belfast firm of chemists. Grattan & Co also manufactured soft drinks, and introduced the first carbonated “ginger ale”.

Cantrell left Grattan & Co in 1852 to form his own chemists business with James Dyas at 22 Castle Place, Belfast.

Dyas & Cantrell manufactured mineral waters, ginger ale, lemonade and soda water, as well as other products. From 1856 the firm began to manufacture sarsaparilla.

In 1859 James Dyas left the partnership to establish his own soft drinks and chemists business. Dyas & Cantrell continued to trade as T J Cantrell.

Perhaps no longer restrained by Dyas, Cantrell began to advertise extensively from the 1860s. The firm had depots in Dublin, Liverpool and Glasgow by 1862. The firm retained its headquarters at Castle Place, but expanding production saw soft drink manufacture relocate to 10 Arthur Place, Belfast.

Increasing demand for their products saw T J Cantrell relocate to 25 Bank Street, Belfast, a former brewery, in 1863. The firm commenced export of its ginger ale to America in 1866.

In 1868 T J Cantrell merged with the soft drinks business of Henry Cochrane (1836 – 1904) of Dublin to form Cantrell & Cochrane. At this time the premises of the Hibernian Mineral Water Company of Nassau Place, Dublin were acquired.

By 1868 Cantrell & Cochrane had contracts to supply several shipping lines, including Cunard, Inman, Montreal, National and City of Dublin.

In 1877 Cantrell & Cochrane successfully trademarked the “Club Soda” name in Britain and Ireland.

Cantrell retired from the partnership in 1883, leaving Cochrane as the sole proprietor, although the Cantrell & Cochrane name was retained.

According to the Belfast Morning News, by 1884 Cantrell & Cochrane was the largest soft drink manufacturer in the world.

By 1885 the Dublin works employed around 500 people and had an annual production capacity of nearly 30 million bottles a year. Almost all of Nassau Place was occupied. The city and suburban trade employed sixteen two-horse vans. The Belfast factory was of a similar size.

The Belfast Morning News claimed in 1885 that what Guinness was to porter, and Bass was to pale ale, Cantrell & Cochrane was to ginger ale, especially in America.

Cantrell & Cochrane became a private limited liability company in 1898. The company was awarded a Royal Warrant by the King of Great Britain in 1901.

Cantrell & Cochrane was one of the largest exporters from Ireland by the time Henry Cochrane died in 1904. He was succeeded as chairman by his son, Ernest Cecil Cochrane (1874 – 1952).

Cantrell died in 1909 with an estate valued at £70,045.

In 1914 the Dublin factory employed around 1,000 people.

The First World War threatened the firm’s large and valuable American trade, so a factory was established in New York.

In 1925 Cantrell & Cochrane was sold to E & J Burke, bottlers of Guinness in America, and Ernest Cecil Cochrane stepped down as chairman.

By 1930 Cantrell & Cochrane had a capital of £200,000.

The end of Prohibition in the United States damaged the Cantrell & Cochrane export trade.

In 1950 E & J Burke was acquired by Guinness.

By 1953 the American subsidiary, with a factory at Englewood, New Jersey, had been sold to National Phoenix Industries.